What is a Custom Data Type (CDT) in Appian?

• A. Developer-defined data structure that represents a logical grouping of related data.
• B. The primary way to manage data in Appian.
• C. Drive actions performed in an application.
• D. Used to visualize data.

Answer: (A)

A Custom Data Type is a developer-defined data structure that groups related fields into one logical unit. In Appian, you define a CDT to model real-world data—for example, a Customer with fields like id, name, email, and address—so you can treat all those related pieces of information as a single object. This makes it easy to pass data around interfaces, process models, and integrations, and it often maps to a row in a CDT-backed data store for storage and retrieval. It’s not the primary mechanism for managing data itself—that role belongs to data stores and external data sources—and it isn’t used for driving actions or visualizing data by itself; it provides the structured data you work with across the app.